Gakuto Mukahi
Gakuto Mukahi '(向日岳人, ''Mukahi Gakuto) is a doubles player who is typically paired up with Yūshi Oshitari; however when facing Seishun Academy at the Nationals, he is paired with Hiyoshi. Like Eiji Kikumaru used to have, he has a stamina problem so he prefers quick matches in which he overwhelms he opponent with moon volleys. He is exceptionally talented at acrobatic play and his acrobatic skills even exceed Eiji Kikumaru. Appearance Mukahi has short dark red hair in a style of a sharp bob cut. He is very slender and is not as tall as some of his teammates. He has a slight feminine appearance like a few other characters in the show. He has brown eyes like a majority of other characters; however, in the anime his eyes are often seen to be an indigo purple color. Personality Like most of Hyotei Academy he is quite arrogant and takes pride in his acrobatics. He has a respectful friendship with Oshitari, which leads him to train his stamina in order to keep from holding Oshitari back. Mukahi also yells at Hiyoshi to shut up, who called Oshitari naive after his singles match against Momoshiro during the National Quarterfinals. According to teammates, Mukahi cannot keep still. Mukahi has a habit of saying to his opponents, "There will always be someone above you," to taunt them, much like Ryoma's "Mada mada dane." History Two Years Prior To The Storyline Mukahi began Hyotei already being friends with Shishido Ryo. The two of them along wtih Akutagawa Jirou are present for Atobe Keigo's speech during the school assembly as he arrogantly announces he is the King of Hyotei. Mukahi spends the morning of the first day with Akutagawa and Shishido being excited to join the school's tennis club. They then find out that the arrogant Atobe is joining the tennis club with them much to Shishido's anger, Mukahi tells him to relax since Atobe's name had not been heard of in any Tokyo tournament for elementary schoolers. As afternoon comes and the time for club activity begins, Mukahi, Jiro and Shishido are shocked to find Atobe sitting in the club room at the center of the sofa declaring he is King to his senior. Mukahi calms Shishido down, and watches Atobe defeat each and every regular consecutively with none of them being able to take a game. Tokyo Prefecturals Mukahi is first shown in the series along with his Hyotei teammates at the Street Tennis Tennis Courts as they taunt Momoshiro Takeshi and Tachibana Ann. However, Mukahi did not participate in the Tokyo Prefecturals as Hyotei only sent three actual regulars into the tournament. Regionals He then appears as Oshitari Yushi's Doubles partner in Doubles 2 against Seigaku's Momoshiro Takeshi and Kikumaru Eiji. Due to Oshitari and Mukahi's carelessness, they allow Momoshiro and Kikumaru to stay in the game and unfortunately, since Mukahi is only good at short games, he eventually runs out of stamina. This causes Momoshiro and Kikumaru to suddenly fight back strongly and leave Oshitari Yushi to cover for Mukahi. They fall for Momoshiro's trickery which causes them to lose 6-4. Hyotei dramatically lose to Seigaku with 3 losses, 2 wins and a draw, meaning that Hyotei were ineligible to enter the National Tournament leaving the Hyotei team depressed. However, Luck falls on Hyotei as Tokyo wins the right to host that years Nationals Tournament meaning that the Tokyo are allowed to invite the next best team from that city which is Hyotei since they finished 5th in the Tokyo Tournament and were last years Tokyo Tournament winners. Nationals Hyotei then enter the National Tournament as underdogs and cruise straight throught to the Quarterfinals and meet Seigaku again annihalating last years Semifinalists Shishigaku along the way. In Doubles 2, Mukahi is paired up with Hiyoshi Wakashi to counter the '''Emerald Pair Kaido Kaoru and Sadaharu Inui. Due to Inui's Data Tennis requiring a long match to be in full effect (since he takes time to gather the opponent's data before overpowering them) and Kaido is known for having an incredible amount of stamina. Unfortunately, they fall for Kaido's trap who hits powerful returns to Hiyoshi and Mukahi which drains their stamina. Despite Hiyoshi telling Mukahi that something isn't right, Mukahi wants to continue. In the end, due to revealing of Inui's incredibly fast Waterfall serve and Kaido's Tornado Snake, they are defeated 7-5 despite being 5-2 ahead. Mukahi is later seen with the rest of his Hyotei teammates at the Nationals finals between Seigaku and Rikkai and are there during the award ceremony. U-17 Camp Mukahi obtaining his ball.jpg|Mukahi easily obtaining a ball. GakutoAcrob.png Mukahi and the rest of the losers.jpg After the Nationals, Mukahi and his Hyotei teammates Hiyoshi Wakashi, Yushi Oshitari, Keigo Atobe, Ryo Shishido, Jiro Akutagawa, Chōtarō Ootori andMunehiro Kabaji get invited to the Japan U-17 Training Camp along with several other middle schoolers. While there, he and Oshitari Yushi pair up since the announcer asks all middle schoolers to pair up. However, the announcer suddenly requests all middle schoolers to have a tie-break with the person with they paired with and the loser must leave the camp. Mukahi loses to Oshitari 0-7 in a tie-break game and is taken on a coach trip home. All the Middle Schoolers that lost their tie-break are taken away from the camp by coach however the driver takes a detour and they are met by the Mental Coach who takes them to to a mountain. He tells them to climb Drunken Coach's Mountain by the camp if they want the chance to stay in the camp. Mukahi and the 26 other middle schoolers complete this task and end up meeting the High Schoolers who were unable to attain a ball from the helicopter. They train in the mountains. Mountain Training While there, Mukahi learns to perform a low moonsault after going through the Drunken Coach's training where he plays with the middle schoolers against the losing high schoolers on the court with an irregular bounce due to its topography. If a player misses the ball or faults, they must step off the court and the winner is the team with the most players at the end. However, Yanagi Renji and Inui Sadaharu use their Data tennis and play the high schooler until it was 2 vs. 3 this was an unfair competition as in reality, the Middle Schoolers had won due to the High Schoolers having far more players on their team than the middle schoolers giving them the unfair advanatage. The Middle School losers are then forced to sleep in the cave due to losing this encounter so tightly. The next challenge involved having a balloon attached to all the members of the Mountain training's waist, both Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. Later on, the 27 middle schoolers in the mountains steal the Coach's sake, angering him to the point he decides they should all go back to the camp and start a revolution and came back with the other Middle School losers and became a player of the 2nd Court. Mukahi is currently a member of the 2nd Court. Genius 10 Challenge He watches the 1st doubles match between the Top 10 Representatives and the Middle School 2nd Stringers, playing close attention to Keigo Atobe and Tsukimitsu Ochi, a past Hyoutei captain that brought the team to the Nationals during his time. Tennis Record Playing Style and Techniques Mukahi is a serve-and-volleyer and specializes in Acrobatic Play. His body is lighter than fellow Acrobatic player Kikumaru, allowing him to perform more complex maneuvers. His play style allows Mukahi to attack quickly and relentlessly, letting Mukahi usually finish the game quickly. Despite his small frame, he has enough strength to return a Jack Knife (albeit with difficulty). However, the weakness of this play style is that due to his already low stamina and because he exhausts a lot of energy to perform his moves, Mukahi cannot handle long drawn-out matches. Also, he has difficulty performing low-angle acrobatic play, unlike Kikumaru (whose Diving Volley is one of his specialty). Mukahi has made an effort to overcome his weak points, as shown in fillers, video games, and in New Prince of Tennis. Acrobatic Play Gakuto's flexible body allows him to reach seemingly far untouchable passing shots with a touch of flair that few can replicate. His acrobatic play is known to be superior to Kikumaru's and he can go for shots with angles and heights that people normally can't reach. His astounding diving volleys and flips astonish the spectators and often gets grudging praise from his opponents. Moonsault A high-level and potentially dangerous (if gone wrong) aerial technique, Mukahi performs a very high jump and flip in the air (seemingly a backwards jump, judging by his posture in the manga) and positions himself with his head directly facing the ground at one point. While he’s at a certain point in his position, Mukahi hits the ball from an irregular angle, with his body and face now facing the ground instead of his head. This is Mukahi's signature technique. U-17 Camp Stats *Speed: 4 *Technique: 4 *Mental: 2 *Stamina: 2 *Power: 2 Personal Information *Favourite Food: Deep Fried Chicken, Fermented Beans *Hobby: Bungee-Jumping, Collecting items like feathers *Family: Father, Mother, Older Sister, Younger Brother *Father's occupation: Electronics *Favourite Subject: Chemistry, English, Physical Education *Favourite Colour: Red *Preferred type: Girls who are easy-going *Commitee: exercise committee *Worst school subject: politics/economics *Most frequented spot in school: the roof *Spends his allowance on: hanging out with friends *Motto: 一日一跳（小学生のときに自分でつくったことわざ）- a jump a day (it was something he made up when he was in primary school) *Favorite Movie: Spiderman *Favorite Book: shounen manga (sports) *Favorite Music: hiphop *Favorite date spot: 遊園地（バンジージャンプができるところ）- A place where I can bungee jump *Most desired/needed item: 背中に羽がほしい! ('Senaka ni hane ga hoshii!' - He wants wings) *Daily routine: emailing friends (100 messages a day) *Dislikes: ghost stories, his father *Special non-tennis skill: skateboarding and streetdancing Tennis Bag Content *'Bird feathers he picked up' He picks them up after they're dropped by birds. After he sterilizes these feathers with pretty colors, he make them into accessories. *'Purse for small change with bird picture' He brings small change to school because big wallets are bulky. There is a picture of a weather vane on the purse. *'Feather accessory' One of his many feather accessories. He bought it from a stall at the park on his way home from school a few days ago. *'Half-sized note book' He likes to use half-sized things because he likes to carry less weight. His classmate says it seems like he uses this note book for all the subjects. Sometimes he leaves his textbooks in school rather than bring them home. *'Net pencil case' He chooses the lightest even when selecting pencil case. Inside there's a mechanical pencil, an eraser and 1-2 pens and when he needs anything else he borrows from classmates. Trivia Character Trivia *In the Another Story he is shown to have a sweet tooth. *Mukahi, Akutagawa Jiro and Shishido Ryo were friends before entering Hyotei Gakuen as they all went to Hyoutei Elementary. *Mukahi runs away from home whenever he fights with his father. *He stays over at Oshitari Yūshi's house. *On average, he runs away 7 times a month. *His vertical jumps can reach 120 cm in height. *His highest jump allows him to momentarily be at the same height as Kabaji. Other Trivia *He is possibly the shortest middle school tennis player that is a senior in the enitre series. *Gakuto came in 6th place in the fourth popularity poll Word From Rival Players *Nomura: Ehh, you're also 158 cm, we have a chibi affinity. Eh? 'Chibi' is a forbidden word!? I-I'm sorry! *Kintarō: What, you're really small, aren't you. Me!? I'm good at jumping. Right, you jump really well too!! *Inui: Mukahi who is insecure about his stamina, flying up from the first half...... He completely outwitted me. Quotes * (About Akutsu) “He has no strength, does he? Hahahaha.” (“Tairyoku mottana kattan ja nei no? Hahahaha.”) * "I'm going to show you that there's always somebody above you." ("Ue ni wa ue ga iru koto, oshiete aru yo") * “Hey, Kikumaru. Try to jump higher.” (“Oi, Kikumaru. Motto tonde miso.”) * “Like I’d let you!” (“Saseru ka!”) * “''Seems like you didn’t give up yet. With this, it’s over!”'' (“Mada akiramete naga tandayo. Kore de, kimari da!”) * “Whatever formation you try to use, I’ll return it!” (“An na formation hattaru da, muka yu te yaru ze!”) * “This side!” (“Kochi da!”) Category:Characters Category:Tennis Player Category:Hyotei Tennis Club Member Category:Middle Schooler Category:3rd Year Middle School Category:U-17 Camp Category:Left-Handed Category:Serve and Volley Category:Tokyo Players Category:Kanto Players Category:Doubles Specialists Category:Revolutionary Brigade Category:September Births Category:B Blood Types Category:Virgo